Sacramento daily record-union., 1887-08-13
A DOUBLE LIFE.



account of the curious impairment of MEM
ory reported in the case of Miss Houtal-
ing, the Chicago young lady, and while it
must be that the case is an extraordinary
one, there died in Crawford county few
years ago a lady who presented one far
more extraordinary and mysterious in its
nature. Her name was Mary Reynolds.
She was daughter of John Reynolds, one
of the early settlers of the county. She was
at the age of 16 a young lady of superior
accomplishments and of vivacious ma
ture. AT that age she was Frustrated with
nervous disease which left her blind,
deaf and speechless. She remained in that
condition for about month, when she re-
covered her sight and hearing. Her mind
was as strong as ever, and she had recov-
cred her physical health and strength.
when one morning about two months after
regaining her sight and hearing she awoke
with all recollection of everything she
ever knew entirely gone. Her speech,
however, had returned to her, but her ut
terances were imperfect and strangely con-
structed. Her mind was apparently as
sound as it had ever been, but she did not
know her parents nor any of her relatives
or friends She could not name a single
letter of the alphabet, and had forgotten
the use of written language. She had
always been a famous housekeeper, but all
her knowledge of domestic employment
was gone. She did not know the use of
broom, and kettle boiling on the stove
was a source of wonder to her. She re-
mained in this strange condition over a
month, when she awoke with all her orig
pal
of her period of lost memory during the
night. All remembrance of the weeks she
had been in that state was gone. The pc
riod was an entire blank to her. All the
knowledge and attainments which she had
forgotten during that period returned to
her. While she had been in the state of
second nature, as it might be called, vari-
GUS things had been taught to her. She
remained in her natural condition only
three weeks when she lapsed into the other
state again, and, as before, forgot every
thing pertaining to her natural state.
What she had learned during her first
lapse came back to her in the second. The
three weeks lucid interval was blank to
her
"These lapses continued at irregular in
tervals for a period of twenty-five years.
Sometimes she would be in one condition
for months, and then change for months
into the other Sometimes the lapses
would be but few hours Most of the
time she remained in the second condition.
The changes always took place in her
sleep. In passing from her unnatural into
her natural life no evidence of the change
was perceptible, but in changing to the
other way her sleep was such that nothing
could awaken her until the transposition
of nature had taken place The sleep
was, in fact, almost suspended animation.
and frequently it lasted twenty -four hours.
As she had no consciousness when in one
condition of ever having been in the other
it was long before she came to realize it
through the statements and affirmations of
her friends. When she came to fully ap-
preciate the situation in which she was
placed, she could foretell days before the
dreaded change to the second condition
came that it was approaching, and at first
she always bade all her relatives and
friends a fearful farewell, fearing that she
might never awaken from the long, death
like sleep. As the years passed, however,
and the transitions became familiar to her.
their approach was no longer attended by
the solemn apprehensions.
In the course of time Miss Reynolds
acquired as much knowledge in her unnat-
ural state as she had in her natural. Her
brother taught her to write in the former
He gave her a sentence which he had
written to copy. She took the pen and
copied the words, but wrote with her left
hand and from right to left. A singular
circumstance connected with her was that
anything could be taught to her with
greater ease while she was in her lapsed
condition, and that in that condition she
wrote charming verses, a gift she did not
command in her natural state. Likewise
she was of a most imaginative nature in
her second condition, with wit extremely
keen and possessed remarkable conversa-
tional powers. In her natural state she
was quiet and thoughtful She formed
most peculiar and strong dislikes in her
lapses against those who were her best and
most intimate friends in her natural life.
For more than twenty years she was a
teacher in the public schools of Crawford
county. For several years before her death
she had lived without lapsing into her
second, or unnatural, condition. Relatives
of hers live in the vicinity of Meadville
and Titusville yet, | believe"